Epilogue
SIX MONTHS LATER...
California weather was so much nicer than Colorado in the sense that ninety percent of the time, you’re in shorts or a swimsuit. I enjoyed it, but I did miss the cold quite a bit. Like how you could go outside in the winter and skate, when here, you were stuck inside a rink all the time.
Once Kayden had gotten settled and a secure spot on the team, he came back for me. While it was hard leaving Mom behind after we’d gotten back on good terms, it was nice to be in a place where I wasn’t constantly reminded of the wreck and what we’d lost.
Kayden was thriving here. He got along well with his teammates, his coaches loved him, and he and Kellan hung out constantly. Dylan was in Baltimore, and much to my dismay, him and Hazel had broken up.
I’d kept in touch with her, and Kayden kept in touch with Dylan because they were our best friends and we’d hoped that they would figure shit out eventually.
I continued counseling here, and found someone who was extremely nice and helped me get through a lot of my battles.
I transferred out of SilverCrest and got into an online school so I could focus more on competing.
Coach Carter recommended a local Coach here who had recently lost her daughter to a car crash and through tragedy, we seemed to bond well together. She’s been training me since.
The door to the apartment opened, and in came my incredibly sexy boyfriend with takeout from a local Chinese place.
I got off the couch and went over and kissed him, eagerly taking the food out of his hands.
“How was practice?” I asked, since they had a game coming up on Saturday.
He placed his keys and phone on the island, and cracked his knuckles. “Good, I’m fucking sore though.”
I started unpacking the food when he came up behind me and placed his hands around my waist. “What are you doing?”
He placed a kiss on my neck, “Just holding my beautiful girlfriend. What are you doing?”
I rolled my eyes, “Unpacking the food because I can hear your stomach.”
“Touche. I’m fucking starving, but...I’m starving for something else, too.”
I playfully pushed him back, “Food first, sex later. You need your calories, can’t have you falling asleep on me.”
He waved me off, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get the plates.”
We fell into a routine, and after our bellies were full and we’d watched a few episodes of The Night Agent, we got into bed and lost ourselves in one another.
Losing Dad and Jake was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to go through. The trials and tribulations that I’d faced in the last year would’ve been enough to break a person.
But it didn’t break me. Instead, it made me stronger. It made me learn that I could be loved and I could love right back.
Kayden had been around my whole life, and while for part of that, we were at each other’s throats, I didn’t realize how much I would come to need him after everything happened.
Surviving that crash taught me that it was okay to live.
It’s okay to be loved.
And it’s even more okay to move on as long as you don’t forget the people that led you to where you are.
THE END
Stay tuned for Dylan and Hazel’s story in the next book. Coming 2027.